AP PhotoThe Pistons have had some ups and downs in Michael Curry's first 22 games as coach.

Joe Dumars had better know what he is doing with Michael Curry as his head coach. Rolling the NBA fuzzy dice on a former player with one year of assistant experience is not working.

There is no strategy to anything I have seen from the Pistons. They just seem to run and gun, and if they are hitting their outside jumpers, they can beat anybody in the league, and it showed in wins against the Lakers, Spurs and Cavaliers.

Problem is that when you are not hitting your shots, you are exposed as a rudderless team and get hammered by NBA weaklings such as the Knicks, Timberwolves and Wizards.

Curry's love-affair directives from Dumars to overplay his bench is killing this team. How in the world do you not run your offense around Richard Hamilton, Allen Iverson, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace?

Trying to tell the hoops world that Rodney Stuckey, Will Bynum, Walter Herrmann, Kwame Brown and Amir Johnson mean something to this team is Dumars trying to show people he knows what he is doing and not trying to win.

Dumars ran off Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown and Flip Saunders because they wanted to concentrate on the veteran players and win now.

Bench is not the answer
This on-the-job training program Dumars is running for coaches and players is a sure sign he has no desire to be a champion again anytime soon. You win with your horses and a coach who knows how to handle them on and off the court.

Outside of McDyess, the Pistons' bench is not good enough to carry this team. You still have to coach to win championships in the NBA. Trying to convince us Stuckey is good enough to be the next Chauncey Billups with a coach who never had been a head coach is not the way to sell it to the fans and media.

What is shocking about Currry's first 22 games is that the Pistons are worse defensively than they were last year under an offensive-minded guy such as Saunders.

If you look inside the numbers, you will be stunned to see that the Pistons are weaker in every category under Curry compared to any other Dumars-hired head coach. Wasn't Curry hired because he would make them a better defensive team than they were under Saunders?

Iverson not the problem
Please don't tell me this is on Iverson joining the team. Curry is so blind and cocky he limits the shots of one of the great players. Curry sat Iverson on Saturday night in Charlotte and watched a 24-point lead disappear in the fourth quarter. That was the fourth consecutive game that the Pistons blew a huge lead.

Curry can't coach. He has no idea on how to use any of his offensive weapons. He made Prince a power forward. Good move there, Michael, change one of your best offensive player's games, wear him down inside, and then call him out in the media.

Curry is not the guy never will be in Detroit. Twenty-two games may seem like jumping the gun for some, but if things don't change in a hurry, the Pistons will be lucky to be a .500 team this season. His in-game coaching is the worst I have seen.

He doesn't seem to get quality matchups to maximize his talent on both sides of the court, his timeout strategy is abysmal, and his player rotation has no consistency.

To me, it seems Dumars is trying to coach this team from the front office. Why would any executive in the NBA give a job to a former player who did not have head coaching experience unless he wanted a guy he could control.

The more this season settles in, the more it looks like the Pistons are writing this year off and officially are in rebuilding mode. At first, I thought the Iverson trade was to make them better, but it is obvious they will be a lower-seeded playoff team with no homecourt advantage and one and done in the postseason.

The Pistons have no shot at any title this year. You don't win 50-plus games, a playoff series or championships with coaches with no experience.

All Dumars has to do is look at the championship teams photos at The Palace, and you will see Chuck Daly and Larry Brown. That is how you win NBA championships -- great veteran players and veteran coaches.